Column: The current presidential election cycle

We are witnessing the most volatile, unconventional presidential election cycle in modern times.

Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have wrapped up their party’s nomination.

This leaves November’s electorate with two of the most obnoxious, unlikable candidates in recent history. Both are unpalatable and manifestly flawed, possibly to the point of ineligibility.

The following forensics apply:

The liberal Age of Aquarius gave us Hillary Clinton. She’s a creature of corruption whose dishonesty defines her. Hollywood mogul David Giffen once said: “Everyone in politics lie, but the Clintons do it with such ease that it’s troubling.”

As one of the establishment’s cognitive elites, Hillary would continue the president’s autarchic policies on immigration, open borders, sanctuary cities and similar policies that promote his personal desires for multiculturalism.

Hillary’s tenure as “co-president” during the mid-’90s was a political disaster. It began with a failed attempt to socialize health care, eight years of continuous scandals involving illegal donations and alleged sexual misconduct, and ended with the Clintons trashing and looting the White House on their way out in 2001.

Their staff “tagged” the walls and tore the W’s (Bush’s middle initial) off keyboards. Hillary deliberately packed fine china, flatware and numerous treasured artifacts belonging to the government. The loss was discovered by the permanent staff and she was made to return everything she took.

Those are lesser known parts of her résumé and emblematic of character.

Her opponent, Donald Trump, is not without flaws either. He’s an angry person and seems capable of capitalizing on his anger.

This may be the perfect time for him to pursue the presidency. His opposition is a person who has become the very essence of the establishment in a year when the electorate on both sides are screaming for change.

Trump’s message has great appeal to people across the nation who feel irrelevant and disregarded in today’s society. They are looking for someone who will pin down the problem and fix it by any means necessary. His followers want fast action and appear ready to give absolute power to one person, as long as that person is willing to crush those perceived as their enemy.

Trump’s ideology is essentially unknown. He may be a conservative by instinct, but not by philosophy. Many pundits, scratching for a label, have called him a nationalist or a populist. He’s neither. Trump’s personality is fixed, but his thinking often wanders.

Most agree that he’s an insightful political opportunist and has driven a stake through the heart of political correctness.

Trump’s not an anomaly, but a conundrum who carries the highest disapproval ratings of any Republican candidate ever; but has won more primary votes than any GOP candidate in history.

Facing a hostile press, unethical Democratic opposition and unsupportive members of his own party, He faces the most unfavorable conditions of any recent presidential candidate. His relationship with the national media is contentious at best. Trump ducks loaded questions and fires back with insults.

Often speaking extemporaneously, he electrifies massive audiences with blunt and slanderous oratory. In doing this, however, he has a tendency to compress the greatest amount of words into the smallest amount of thought.

Verbally, Trump can be impassioned, offensive, defensive and irritable, sometimes in the same sentence. His remarks aren’t directed to any one demographic, everyone hears the same message: Fix America.

Likability plays a big role in the presidential process. “The Donald,” however, needs a little maintenance. He’s bombastic, narcissistic and fiercely unapologetic. His hair looks like he’s walking backwards on a windy day. Neckties needs two-blocking and the coat buttoned. Facial expressions look like he just chugged a quart of vinegar. He should smile more often and quit using those worn-out, robotic gestures ending with a thumbs up.

Donald J. Trump may be just what the nation needs; or, conversely, as Winston Churchill once said of an adversary, “He’s the bull that carries a china shop around with him.”

Perhaps he’s the bull we need in Washington to shake up those china shops and those weak establishment ideologues.

Realistically, Trump is not the preeminently qualified candidate that everyone wishes for, but he’s the only person on the ticket willing to reverse the leftward trajectory of the country.

And yes, he too is flawed, but clearly is the lesser of the evils. Many will vote for him and roll the dice hoping for the best, because there is no other choice.

C.R. Shoemaker is a retired Marine Corps officer, Prescott resident and former campaign manager for several valley candidates.